Visiting a Friend
by Cukeygirl
Summary: Bruce Wayne confronts Amanda Waller about Terry McGinnis's true parentage. Set in the same universe as my stories, 'The Ring' & 'Death of Batman'


**Visiting A Friend**

"So where we goin'?" Terry asked as he entered the civilian car Bruce Wayne owned.

The old man grunted slightly and gave the boy an address as he settled in his seat. He hated being old. It was an insult to him that his body had betrayed him. For a long time he knew it would eventually happen, he'd just thought he would be able to find a way around it or die before it happened. But then again... didn't everyone say he was too stubborn to die?

"You're awful quiet today. Something on your mind?"

"No."

"If you're still thinking about what happened with Tim and-"

"Just drive."

"Fine," Terry snorted.

Bruce was too old to be worried about hurting the boy's feelings. Besides there were other things to consider at the moment. Out of the corner of his eye, he studied the boy closer. Strange how it had taken him nearly a year in his presence to connect the dots. And he probably wouldn't have figured it out if it hadn't been for the incident with Tim and the Joker recently.

"Whoa... talk about security. Who are we visiting here, the president?" He joked as he opened the old man's door.

"_We _aren't visiting anyone. Stay in the car. This shouldn't take long," he ordered him as he approached the guard. He sense rather than saw the boy give him a mock salute.

"Name?" The guard at the gate asked.

"Bruce Wayne, I'm here to see Mrs. Waller," he replied not cowtoed at all by the big scary men carrying big scary guns. In his youth, he'd have eaten them for breakfast. Come to think of it, he probably still could.

"Hmm... ok name's on the list. Got two forms of photo ID Mr. Wayne?" the guard asked.

Bruce gave him a glare. The guard swallowed hard but was adamant at insisting for identification.

"It's all right Carl. He can get through," a deep and scratchy voice said through the intercom. Bruce looked up to his high left and saw a camera watching his every move. Ever vigilant the great Amanda Waller.

"Yes, ma'am." The guard nodded and the gates opened.

Bruce slowly moved up the walkway to the door. This was it, he was going to get some answers. None of this would end in blows or the fights like they used to have, both were too old for all that nonsense now.

"Mrs. Waller is waiting for you in the lounge," an elderly housekeeper answered the door.

He nodded stiffly and approached the second door on the left. He didn't need to be shown the way, he'd been here before, and had not forgotten the layout.

"Bruce, it's always good to see old friends," an elderly Amanda Waller greeted him. She was perhaps two or three years older than him, but at their age one could hardly tell the difference.

"Friends? I'd hardly call us friends, Amanda." He gave her a smirk.

"Survivors of a long forgotten war, then. Come have a seat," she indicated two comfy chairs that were seated in front of a fireplace. It wasn't going, but the weather would soon turn could enough for it to be burning strong.

"Hm, a war that is never over can't be forgotten," he grumped as he took his seat.

She smiled at him. "Would you like some green tea? It's done wonders for my health, kept me alive all these years."

He nodded. "You and I both know that it isn't tea that's kept us alive this long. Perhaps Clark put it best when he said I was too stubborn to die. I suppose the same applies to you."

She chuckled and handed him his tea. "We certainly are a stubborn pair. Took out almost half the planet before we settled our differences."

He sipped the tea quietly, placed it on back on it's saucer before setting it down on the table. "Amanda... you know why I'm here."

Closing her eyes momentarily, she sighed deeply and nodded. "Of course. Terry McGinnis. Or should I say your new protege, Batman?"

"Don't try to shock me with your knowledge of his identity. I'm entitled to some answers, Waller. And I want them...NOW," his tone of voice had returned to a time when they had been deep enemies.

Amanda set her own tea cup down. "I had to, Bruce... you were getting older..."

"It happens to the best of us."

"May I explain without any interruptions, then?"

He nodded. So she explained everything, from her noticing that he was slowing down as he aged to finding the right couple that matched Martha and Thomas Wayne. She even told him about trying to use Andrea as an assasin. He'd tensed up quite a bit at that, but said nothing. It was obvious that after so many years, he still felt some love for her. When she finished, he stood and walked to the window. He stared down at the young boy in the car, obviously listening to loud and obnoxious music.

"Bruce? Say something... please?" She placed an arm on his shoulder.

"What is there to say, Amanda? That for all my careful paths, somehow you still managed to manipulate me? There is nothing to say, just acknowledge the information and store it away."

"How can you be so cold? Aren't you at least somewhat happy that you have a son, that you're a father-"

"I am not Terry's father. Warren McGinnis was his father. He may not have saved the world or run a multi-billion dollar corporation, but he was a good man. From the little I know of him, he always provided well for his family, took care of Terry, was there for him when he went through a rough patch. That's a father. I, was merely a DNA donor," he answered her.

"No. You started being that boy's father the moment he stumbled into your cave and put on that suit. You've guided him when he needed you the most. I like to think that whether it was destiny or faith or God's will that made it happen, it happened for a reason. He lost one father, but he gained another. Don't push him away like you pushed the others away, embrace this one. He truly is yours. Don't let the last years of your life go wasted, my friend. For your sake... and his," she pleaded with him.

He stared into her eyes and saw not a calculating manipulative mind, but a true friend. One that had his well being in her thoughts.

"Thank you, Amanda." He gave her a rare smile.

"Will you tell him?" she asked as he approached the door.

"No. It would be an insult to his father, to Warren, to have me overshadow his memory. For now, we'll let it be."

That was the last time Amanda Waller saw him alive. It wasn't until his funeral more than thirty years later, sitting in a wheelchair that she saw the impact of that conversation. Terry McGinnis stood next to his wife and two children, Wayne Thomas McGinnis and Isabella Martha McGinnis as they lowered Bruce Wayne's body into the ground. The world perhaps didn't know that the little family was the last remaining true Waynes in the world, but they did. And they honored and loved him as he deserved to be loved in his final days.


End file.
